Can Colbert Play It Straight?

By Merissa Marr

Every year, Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert sets up a 1-888-OOPS-JEW hotline to give Jews an opportunity to apologize to him in the 10 days of repentance between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Mr. Colbert mispronounces the Jewish holy days, blows the “dead ram” Shofar and brings out his atonement phone.

“Oh children of Israel, once again I look forward to your apologies to me. To quote your Jewish Pope Moses—’revenge is a dish best served kosher,’” he says.

It is the kind of on-the-edge humor that has won Mr. Colbert a strong following among a younger generation of late night viewers—a following that led CBS Corp. to his door in choosing a successor to their late night star, David Letterman.

But in airlifting Mr. Colbert from the almost-anything-goes world of cable to the confines of broadcast television, CBS Corp. is taking a risk.

When he takes over “The Late Show” next year, Mr. Colbert (pronounced Colbear with a silent “t”) will retire his Republican talk-show character from “The Colbert Report” and present himself as plain old “Stephen Colbert.”

Whether Mr. Colbert can maintain his following as a different persona, no longer cloaked in parody, isn’t guaranteed. CBS is arguably the most middle of the road of the broadcast networks, whose programming ranges from dramas like “NCIS” to popular sitcoms including “The Big Bang Theory” and the recently retired “How I Met Your Mother.”

“Stephen is extremely funny in a thought-provoking manner and unbelievably original,” said CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves. “We needed the smartest guy in town to replace Dave. What Stephen stands for is what late night should be.”

Advertisers have rewarded Mr. Colbert’s show on Viacom Inc.’s Comedy Central with more ad dollars. Marketers shelled out $59.7 million on ads for his program last year, a 10% increase from 2012, according to Kantar Media.

That’s significant as the late-night business has faced shrinking audiences and revenues, forcing the biggest broadcast shows to cut costs.

Ad spending on late-night television overall fell 5% last year to $631 million, according to Kantar Media. Mr. Letterman’s “Late Show” brought in $130 million, a 10% drop from 2012, while at revenue at Mr. Leno’s “Tonight Show” declined 7% to $135 million.

“Late night is not what it was five years ago,” says Mr. Moonves. “But it is still very profitable. We made money on Letterman and we will make money on Colbert.”

Mr. Moonves said Mr. Colbert, whose contract with Comedy Central expires at the end of this year, was long at the top of his wish list. He started discussions with the 49-year-old comedian just a week ago, after Mr. Letterman announced his retirement, finalizing a deal in the corner of the arena at the Final Four of the NCAA basketball tournament over the weekend.

In choosing Mr. Colbert, Mr. Moonves is riding a generational shift in late night toward a younger breed of host. Come next year, late night will be populated with an entirely new lineup as advertisers push for a younger audience.

Mr. Letterman’s decision to retire follows close behind Jay Leno’s handing of “The Tonight Show” baton to Jimmy Fallon, who is 24 years his junior. Walt Disney Co.’s ABC also has shifted another young host, Jimmy Kimmel, into the 11:35 p.m. slot.

Mr. Colbert will be 17 years younger than his predecessor. That is the same gap between the average age of a “Colbert Report” viewer and a Letterman viewer. On “The Colbert Report,” Mr. Colbert’s average viewer has been 42 years old in the season to date, according to Nielsen data. Mr. Letterman’s average viewer is almost 59.

Since his debut in February, Mr. Fallon has squashed the competition with a particularly strong showing among younger viewers. But it is Mr. Colbert, and his Comedy Central colleague Jon Stewart, who have led the field in the very youngest categories.

In the 18-24 age bracket, Mr. Colbert has ranked second among the late night hosts behind Mr. Stewart in the season to date, according to Nielsen.

Comedy Central gave Mr. Colbert his own show in 2005 after a successful run as a correspondent on “The Daily Show.” Since then, he has rarely appeared out of character, parodying a conservative cable talk show host. He even testified in character at a congressional hearing about immigrant farm workers in 2010, telling lawmakers: “This is America. I don’t want a tomato picked by a Mexican. I want it picked by an American, then sliced by a Guatemalan and served by a Venezuelan in a spa where a Chilean gives me a Brazilian.”

“I won’t be doing the new show in character, so we’ll all get to find out how much of him was me. I’m looking forward to it,” Mr. Colbert said in a statement through his publicist. He was not made available for interview.

Mr. Colbert, who won an Emmy for best late night host last year, has risen to become one of the highest paid hosts in late night television. One person familiar with the situation said Mr. Colbert earned between $10 million and $15 million a year at Comedy Central and he didn’t take a pay cut to go to CBS.

Mr. Moonves declined to comment on Mr. Colbert’s salary. The network said it had signed Mr. Colbert to a five-year contract.

Even in cable, Mr. Colbert’s sharply satirical brand of humor has sometimes gotten him into trouble.

He recently came under fire after lampooning Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder’s decision to form a foundation to benefit Native Americans, playing off the controversy over the football team’s name.

“Folks, this move by Dan Snyder inspires me, because my show has frequently come under attack for having a so-called offensive mascot, my beloved character Ching Chong Ding Dong,” he riffed on his show.

“I am willing to show #Asian community I care by introducing the Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever,” @ColbertReport, a Twitter handle maintained by Comedy Central, later tweeted.

Amid an ensuing campaign to have his show taken off the air, Mr. Colbert plowed right back in, bringing Twitter co-founder Biz Stone on his show to blow up the offending Twitter account.

Although advertiser-friendly, Mr. Colbert also has a history of satirizing some of the sponsors of his show.

In 2012, Mr. Colbert mocked Wheat Thins, a sponsor of his show, making fun of the cracker by reading aloud from the memo sent him by the parent company to prepare him for the product placement. Despite the ribbing, the company was happy with all the attention.

Mr. Moonves says they have yet to work out the tone of the show when Mr. Colbert takes over next year.

“The character he created at Comedy Central is outstanding but he is able to do so much more and we have a year to figure it out,” he said.